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Natural Wood Statement Necklace

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 In case you missed my guest post over at The CSI Project a couple of weeks ago during Accessories Week, here it is again!
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We’ll be making a Natural Wood Statement Necklace!

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To make this necklace you will only need a handful of supplies:

Small branches of varying diameters
Dremel or some other tool to cut the wood
Backing for your necklace
Clear spray paint
Adhesive
Chain

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I received this bad boy for Christmas! I’ve been itching to use it. My first real power tool to be added to my craft supply. Too much fun!

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I started out by gathering a few different branches from around the yard. I wanted to be sure I chose ones that weren’t exactly the same so I would have some contrast later when putting the necklace together. I put the branches in my potting shed a week before I planned to do the project so they would be nice and dry when I was ready for them.
I used a cutting tool on my Dremel to cut the branches into disks of varying thickness.
Unfortunately I didn’t have quite the right cutting attachment (it wasn’t meant to cut wood) so it left all of my disks with burn marks. No worries! I had another attachment for the Dremel that sanded those burn marks right off.
You can see in the bottom right photo above the huge difference sanding the disks made!

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The varying heights of the disks give a great 3-dimensional effect when layed out!

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You have options for the next step. Choose the type of media you want to use behind your necklace. I tried laying the wood disks out on a piece of brown felt and a piece of transparency. I preferred the look of the transparency and seeing the space between the disks. It keeps everything looking more natural!

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For my transparency, I used a piece of adhesive-backed film that I found at Hobby Lobby (use a 40% off coupon!). I cut a piece of the transparency that would fit the layout I had designed for the necklace.
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Peel off the white backing of the transparency exposing the adhesive and start laying out your disks in the pattern you want for your necklace.

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Once all of your disks are on the transparency, trim the edges with a pair of scissors (above photo with arrow on the left). Go back and further trim the transparency with an X-acto knife (above photo with arrow on the right). You don’t want to see any of the transparency peaking out around the edges of the outer disks.

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You can now pick up the disks as one big piece thanks to the adhesive on the transparency sheet!
(Note: If you decide to go the route of using the felt backing, simply use some adhesive such as Beacon’s 3-in-1 or a hot glue gun to attach the disks to the felt.)
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To prevent the wood disks from getting scratched or possibly falling apart in the future I gave them 3 good coats of Krylon Gloss clear spray paint.

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The clear paint gives the wood just a bit of shine.

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Add some adhesive (I used Beacon’s 3-in-1) to each top corner wood disk to attach your chain.
Adjust your chain length to your styling, and add a necklace clasp as you would any other necklace.
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I love the natural look of this necklace! And to think its upcycled from things around your yard you would normally just put into a brush pile makes it even better.

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Rebecca

Wednesday 9th of March 2011

This is lovely; a nice take on the bib necklace style that is everywhere. Great job!

Avenueswithoutlimit

Wednesday 9th of March 2011

Michelle,This is beyond creative and fabulous.You are featured this week at http://passionatelyartistic.comI am looking forward to seeing your projects every week.Maggie

Rachel {BubblyNatureCreations.com}

Saturday 5th of March 2011

this is awesome! i love the natural look. I'd love for you to come link this at the project party here: http://www.bubblynaturecreations.com/2011/03/project-party-weekend-5-ways-to-re.html

have a great weekend!

Wendy @ Ramblings from the Sunshine State

Friday 4th of March 2011

Wow, what a neat piece!

Visiting from Serenity Now!

katy

Friday 4th of March 2011

Love it! Thanks for sharing.www.lollylinens.com

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